Tips For Making Bentos Fun and Stress Free

Today’s post is from Diana, author of Diana Rambles. Diana is a work from home mother of 3 who has been blogging over 7 years about food, family, & fun. You can get more bento tips from Diana at Diana Rambles. Diana also runs Bento Blog Network which has a weekly themed bento linky party. Over 1500 bentos have been linked up and they provide lots of inspiration for creating your own bentos.

A few years ago I saw some cute lunches called bentos online and thought they would be fun to make for my daughter. I was familiar with the term bento from living in Hawaii and traveling in Asia. I loved the cute spin that I was seeing on these boxed lunches. As we approached Kindergarten, I decided that I was going to make cute bentos for my daughter’s lunch each day. I wanted her to be eating a full, healthy lunch and to feel comforted by being apart during the day with my loving gesture.

Introduce new foods by making their food fun!

I didn’t want to be sending junk food in my daughter’s lunch, so when I give her new foods or ones she’s not a fan of, I make them cute by using a cookie cutter, decorating, or making it fun.

Nutella introduced in a butterfly shaped sandwich. Skewered blueberries adds to the fun!

Introduced cantaloupe (starfish) and edamame in this under the sea themed bento.

My daughter won’t eat peas at dinner, but she will in a cute lunch!

Don’t worry if your creation isn’t as cute as those online!

There are a lots of very cute and creative bentos out there. Don’t get hung up on how cute or fun yours are. You only have one person to impress and that’s your kid or whomever you are making the bento for. Here are a few of my less than perfect lunches that my daughter adored.

This was my very first bento.

My panda turned out kind of creepy, but she loved it!

This is supposed to be a flower garden.

Bentos shouldn’t be stressful and they certainly aren’t a competition. Use your creativity to introduce new food and have fun with your children, but — above all — let it be fun!

{I Heart Lunch}

Time to share your lunch! What fun lunch boxes have you been packing for your family?

You can link to any kid-lunch/bento or family-friendly recipe on a blog post or via flickr photos — this linky is for any kind of healthy school lunch and kid-food, regardless if it is Bento-style or not. I want to celebrate our efforts to provide good and enjoyable school lunches for our families!

My only request is that you either add a link back to this post or include the Lunch Graphic (which links back) to your post so others can get here to view the linked lunches too!

Link up your school lunches and bentos! Please use a permalink for your post rather than linking your general blog/flickr account URL — this will help people go directly to your fabulous lunch!

Now — link ’em up!

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About Rachel Lacy

Rachel Lacy is the author of Following In My Shoes, where she blogs about Mommyhood, Family-Friendly Recipes and Bento Lunches, and Life in Texas. She is a lover of all things Coffee and Nutella.
You can also connect with Rachel Lacy on Google+.

Welcome

My name is Rachel -- I share tales about food and family. I'm a home-cook who focuses on fresh meals to both fuel us and to help us celebrate our family-life. My day starts with coffee. Lots of coffee. Read More About Me.